Asif Mahmud Arnob
Student, Department of Port and Shipping Management
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University
Autonomous ships also known as autonomous container ships or maritime autonomous surface ships which are seaborne vessels that transport either containers or bulk cargo over navigable waters with little or no human interaction. Shipping means transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo from one place to another. The industry which grows according to it is known as shipping industry. Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution that concerns industry. Autonomy and AI (Artificial intelligence) is very much related here. AI is the intelligence illustrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans.
New world and new era of industry is focusing and evolving towards Industry 4.0. To keep pace according to it and make it possible autonomous ships are a must and it has a huge prospect.
Autonomous ships:
Autonomous ships or crewless ships are equipped with the software & hardware without human interference. The components such as:
• sensors
•automated navigation
• propulsion & auxiliary systems
•GPS tracker
• others present in the ships help to make decision in accordance with the environment.
Moreover, the partially automated ships are controlled & monitored through the off-board control centers with the interference of human. In addition, autonomous ships have their complete operations controlled by the advanced operating systems which enables it to take decisions and actions by itself. The component such as:
• sensor
• integrated radar systems
• live tracking navigation assembly
These are used in autonomous ships are supported by the services such as:
• IoT
•Artificial intelligence (AI)
This help to follow mission plans, adjust mission execution, and sense the environment with the necessary decision logic. Presently, there is a demand for smart and autonomous ships which can reduce human involvement in the operation. One of the major factors that drive the autonomous ships market share is increase in seaborne trades across the globe. Remote and autonomous ships have the potential to redefine the maritime industry and the roles of the players in it with implications for shipping companies, shipbuilders and maritime systems providers, as well as technology companies from other (especially the automotive) sectors. Modern ships already include complex automated systems. This technological development has allowed for a gradual reduction in on-board manning. Increased data collection, processing and interconnectivity capabilities, enabling the automated systems to be controlled remotely or through artificial intelligence, may gradually further reduce manning and ultimately result in unmanned ships. This has the potential to increase safety, improve the environmental performance of, and enable more cost-effective shipping. The technologies for this are maturing rapidly, but it is still questionable whether their implementation would ensure the safe operation of ships. According to a study by Allianz, between 75% and 96% of maritime accidents are caused by human error. If autonomous and semi-autonomous systems can help reduce the reliance on humans that can make mistakes due to fatigue or bad judgment, autonomous ships could eventually make our oceans safer. Even if a crew is on board, the data gathered from the ship’s sensors combined with artificial intelligence algorithms will help the crew make better-informed decisions. Autonomous cargo ships are now viewed as the next logical step within maritime shipping, noting the general trend of automating tasks and reducing crews on ships.
Autonomous ships consist of four main elements :
• Navigation: The process of navigation of a smart ship receives inputs from various sensors on the ship. The informations from these sensors are mixed with a software-based sensor fusion block to create an image of the world. Situation Awareness (SA), a software-based system assesses this image to translate the informations into actionable information.
• Guidance: The image created and assessed by the navigation system is used by the support system to chart the ship’s way. Several things need to be considered as nearby obstacles, route from origin to destination and other navigational aspects and the status of other ships (communication block). These different information blocks are combined to generate the ship’s way.
• Physical ship: In order to assist the software-based decision making system, additional hardware is needed on the physical ship to collect informations.
• Control: The control system of an autonomous ship is also called the motion controller steers the ship in the appropriate direction. The software-based control system processes the informations provided by the path generation software, converting it into commands for the various hardware positioning systems on the ship.
Norwegian built Yara Birkeland is planning to introduce the first autonomous cargo ship in 2020. The autonomous ships, which are to be introduced in the market will not have any crew on the ship to control the operations. They will use technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT, cloud computing, and other advanced technologies or their operations will be remotely controlled from the control station located on the land.
This helps reduce the number of accidents occurring due to human error as these autonomous ships are equipped with various
•advanced sensors
•infrared cameras
•developed radar
•LIDAR modules
•automatic identification system
These features helps to provide a safer operation of the ships. Furthermore, grounding of ships, tugboat accidents, cargo hauling accidents, shipyard accidents and others are reduced to some extend by implementing automated features on ships. The steps toward automation in the field of marine along with the demonstrations of autonomous ships of large companies has created various countries to develop automated vessels. Rolls Royce and Finland based ferry operator Finferries demonstrated the world’s first fully autonomous ferry. Also, Norwegian built Yara Birkeland is a fully autonomous ship which is to start working in 2020. In addition, Norway based Kongsberg partnered with Yara is planning to develop all electric vessels by 2020.
Each and every sector, starting from finance to transportation to healthcare or media, is subject to the 4th Industrial Revolution which is building on the 3rd one; the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. So to cope up with this change the Autonomous ships is now the major subject of Shipping industry and using AI and VTS we will develop this Sector as well.
Autonomous Ships Market Major Players:
The major players who are operating the autonomous ships market include
•Rolls-Royce
• Kongsberg Gruppen
• Marine Technologies LLC
•Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
• Northrop Grumman
• Ulstein Group ASA
•ABB Ltd.
• L3 ASV
•Honeywell International
• Wartsila
Moreover the gadget suppliers for the autonomous ships market include:
• Intel Corporation
•Google LLC (Google)
• Sea Machines Robotics Inc.
• Neptec Technologies Corp.
• Shone Automation Inc.
• Buffalo Automation.
“Autonomous shipping is the future of the maritime industry. As disruptive as the smartphone, the smart ship will revolutionize the landscape of ship design and operations”
Mikael Mäkinen, President, Marine at Rolls-Royce Plc.
The integration of digitization into on board and ashore side of shipping is not going to be instant and revolutionary. This change would rather be gradual and evolutionary.
The shipping industry should focus on overcoming the challenges and now it can be said that the autonomous ships have a daunting prospect on the shipping industry.
Reference:
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/autonomous-shipping-trends/
https://www.rina.org.uk/Autonomous_Ships.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327704347_Smart_ships_and_the_changing_maritime_ecosystem